Project: Night & Day, Jemeppe | Belgium
Architect: Buro 5 architectes & associés sprl, Namur | Belgium
Installer: Alban Seius | Belgium
Façade System: Glued
Year of Construction: 2019
Product: ALUCOBOND® PLUS special colour
Photos: François Mainil
NIGHT OWLS AND LATE SHOPS
People who realise their refrigerators are empty long after the shops have closed, predominantly young adults and students, usually head to the nearest filling station or to a late-night corner shop in the big cities. The Belgian company Night & Day’s 24-hour “magasins” also started out that way about thirty years ago. Since then, the company has grown and now runs more than 80 shops and other business lines for a young target group, which has become more and more exacting over the years. Lifestyle is not limited to parties; it is an overall concept of living. That is why a Night & Day no longer looks like a common or garden 24-hour shop. The brand updated its appearance and store architecture four years ago. Its basic colours are black as night and bright yellow. The interior, clad like the façade in large-format, partially curved ALUCOBOND® elements, appears upbeat, simple and striking, with expressive lettering and accentuated graphic art. Incidentally, in French, “magasin” means shop and “magazine” means the same as in English. The Night & Day design combines magasin and magazine as the stores are great places for shopping and very communicative. Good legibility, orientation and a cool shopping experience not only for night owls. Night & Day’s success in addressing a very specific target group, led it to stretch the brand and develop a wider range of services and associated with the company for precisely this group. Examples include a boutique hotel, a wine shop, a restaurant serving contemporary haute cuisine and a burger bar. Although the interior design is sleek, modern, with black highlights and strong graphics in every one of them, each one is distinctive. The different business areas act as logical counterparts and bolster each other, since the aim is to make customers, a design-focused and lifestyle-oriented community, feel connected to the company in the long term. After all, even the latest customer at the late night shop will grow up sooner or later.